On a Friday in New Orleans, a loaded tanker that appeared to have lost its steering drove into a river cruise boat that was tied up at the dock, and the cruise boat rolled over into the Mississippi. The river is a place where human plans meet machinery and current, and here both were briefly out of control: 180 people went into cold brown water, and yet all of them came out alive, with 32 needing hospital care but none in critical condition. Why the steel failed to hold remains unanswered, and the investigators who will seek that answer were themselves delayed by a nationwide grounding of flig
All 180 Aboard New Orleans Paddleboat Survive Collision With Asphalt Tanker on Mississippi
All 180 people aboard survived, but 32 were hospitalized and many passengers lost IDs, phones, and car keys after plunging into the river.
"Zero people unaccounted for" after a cruise boat flipped into the Mississippi
Mark
Everyone survived, which seems almost unbelievable given the boat flipped. What made that possible?
Mimi
Speed of response, mostly. Tugboat operators, dock workers and police all moved at once, and dozens were pulled from the water onto nearby ships, including at least two officers.
Luke
Worth noting that's the mayor's account of zero unaccounted for. The roll call at the auditorium is how they checked it, and that's reported, so it's solid enough, but the full process hasn't been detailed.
Mark
Flanagan called it chaos. Was the rescue messy?
Mimi
He said the many boats helping made things somewhat convoluted with people still in the water. Still, it worked.
Mark
What do we know about why the tanker hit?
Luke
Very little. The Coast Guard's Capt. Burnham said it appeared to be some loss of steering. Appeared is the key word; the cause is officially unknown.
Mimi
Davies adds that an upriver ship moving slowly against the current shouldn't do this, and it had already cleared Algiers Point.
Luke
But Davies is an outside expert reading videos, not an investigator. His catastrophic failure comment is an impression.
Mark
And the Chinese ownership detail?
Luke
It's from MarineTraffic, and the company hasn't commented. Nothing in the reporting links ownership to the crash.
Der Puls
- A 520-foot asphalt tanker, apparently without steering, struck the docked American Heritage with 180 people aboard, and the impact was loud enough to be heard as metal and glass broke.
- The cruise boat listed within minutes and flipped while evacuation was still underway, pitching passengers and crew into the 66-degree Mississippi.
- Tugboat crews, dockworkers, police and nearby ships raced to pull people from the water, while an improvised rescue unfolded in a crowd of responders still in the river.
- Once safe, passengers who had lost IDs, phones and car keys were sheltered in an auditorium and roll-called, with most of them out-of-town visitors who now needed phone chargers, food, lodging and ways home.
- The cause remains unknown, the NTSB's arrival was slowed by nationwide flight groundings, and the tanker's owner, a China State Shipbuilding subsidiary, had not responded to requests for comment.
On a Friday in New Orleans, a loaded tanker that appeared to have lost its steering drove into a river cruise boat that was tied up at the dock, and the cruise boat rolled over into the Mississippi. The river is a place where human plans meet machinery and current, and here both were briefly out of control: 180 people went into cold brown water, and yet all of them came out alive, with 32 needing hospital care but none in critical condition. Why the steel failed to hold remains unanswered, and the investigators who will seek that answer were themselves delayed by a nationwide grounding of flights, a reminder of how many quiet systems a single accident relies upon.
On Friday, a tanker that seemed to have lost its steering slammed into the American Heritage, a river cruise boat docked in New Orleans with 180 people aboard. Video shows the much larger Atlantic Asphalt tanker striking the hull, with metal and glass crunching on impact.
The cruise boat began listing within minutes and flipped while emergency workers were still trying to get everyone off. Passengers and crew ended up in the Mississippi, where the water sat at 66 degrees Fahrenheit. Tugboat operators, dockworkers and police rushed in, and dozens of people, including at least two officers, were pulled onto nearby ships. Mayor Helena Moreno told reporters that no one was unaccounted for, calling it a miracle on the Mississippi. Thirty-two people went to hospitals, none with critical injuries.
Those who were unhurt were taken to an auditorium, where cruise officials called a roll. Many had lost IDs and car keys, and most were from out of town. They needed phone chargers, ways to reach family, food, hotel rooms and transportation.
The American Heritage, built in 2015 and operated by American Cruise Lines, had been finishing an eight-day trip through Louisiana and Mississippi. Coast Guard Capt. Melanie Burnham said the tanker appeared to have suffered some loss of steering, but the cause is still unknown. Maritime law expert Martin Davies of Tulane said it was too early to judge, though the tanker had already made the difficult turn at Algiers Point with a local pilot aboard, which makes the failure all the more puzzling.
The tanker is owned by a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, which did not respond to a request for comment. NTSB investigators, delayed by flight groundings, are expected to arrive soon, and the steering question will be the first thing they examine.
On Friday, a tanker that appeared to have lost its steering slammed into the American Heritage, a river cruise boat docked in New Orleans with 180 people aboard. Video from the scene shows the far larger Atlantic Asphalt tanker striking the cruise boat, with metal and glass crunching and breaking on impact.
The boat began listing within minutes and flipped over while emergency workers were still trying to get everyone off. Passengers and crew ended up in the Mississippi, where the water was 66 degrees Fahrenheit (19 Celsius). Dozens of people, along with at least two police officers, were pulled from the river onto nearby ships. Tugboat operators, workers on the docks, police and other rescuers rushed in to help.
At a news conference, New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno said no one was unaccounted for, calling it a miracle on the Mississippi, as rescuers and others cheered. Thirty-two people were taken to hospitals, she said, and none had critical injuries.
Devon Flanagan was working nearby at the Port of New Orleans when workers ran down the dock. He got out of his truck and saw the American Heritage on its side and passengers in the water. He called it chaos, with ships, barges and crews from other companies all trying to help, which he said was somewhat convoluted because people were still in the water.
People who were not hurt were taken to a nearby auditorium, where cruise officials called a roll to confirm everyone was accounted for. Many had lost IDs and even car keys, and most were from out of town, Moreno said. They needed phone chargers, and some had no phones at all. With the crash now national news, she said, they needed to reach their families, along with food, hotel rooms and transportation.
The American Heritage was built in 2015 and operated by American Cruise Lines. The five-story vessel can carry up to 150 passengers. It was finishing an eight-day cruise through Louisiana and Mississippi destinations, with New Orleans as its final stop. According to MarineTraffic, it is 520 feet (160 meters) long and sails under a Marshall Islands flag.
The cause is not known. Coast Guard Capt. Melanie Burnham said the tanker seemed to have had some type of loss of steering. The National Transportation Safety Board plans to investigate, but its members could not initially reach New Orleans because all flights nationwide were grounded by communications problems at regional air traffic control centers.
Martin Davies, a maritime law expert at Tulane University, said it was too early to say what went wrong, though the videos suggest a catastrophic system failure on the tanker, plus what he called super bad luck that it hit as passengers were leaving. The tanker was heading upriver, moving slowly against the current. For that to happen to an upbound ship, he said, something must have gone badly wrong. Tankers carry local pilots, he noted, and this one had already made the difficult turn at Algiers Point before the crash.
According to MarineTraffic, the tanker, which carries asphalt and bitumen in large quantities, is owned by a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate. The subsidiary is registered in Liberia and lists no other vessels. A Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report said the parent company accounted for nearly a quarter of the global commercial shipbuilding market in 2022 and was the world's largest military shipbuilder. During his first term, President Donald Trump named it among more than two dozen Chinese companies accused of exploiting U.S. investors to finance Chinese military modernization; the order restricted certain transactions rather than freezing all of them. The company did not answer an emailed request for comment Friday afternoon.
What to watch now is when NTSB investigators arrive and what they find about the tanker's steering.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
We have zero people unaccounted for, which truly is a miracle on the Mississippi.— New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno
The tanker seemed to have some type of loss of steering, but the exact cause was unknown.— Coast Guard Capt. Melanie Burnham (paraphrased)
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